'Tis neither here nor there. [ William Shakespeare ]

Hell is empty.
And all the devils are here. [ William Shakespeare ]

Here I am, and here I remain. [ Marshall MacMahon in the trenches before the Malakoff ]

Here lies the body of Ann Mann,
Who lived an old woman,
And died an old Mann. [ Epitaph ]

We have here other fish to fry. [ Rabelais ]

Go back; the virtue of your name
Is not here passable. [ William Shakespeare ]

Here lies the body of John Mound
Lost at sea and never found. [ Epitaph ]

Formerly humble huts stood here. [ Virgil ]

We wander there, we wander here,
We eye the rose upon the brier,
Unmindful that the thorn is near,
Amang the leaves. [ Burns ]

Earth's highest station ends in -
Here he lies. [ Young ]

Yet all I've learnt from hours rife
With painful brooding here,
Is, that amid this mortal strife.
The lapse of every year
But takes away a hope from life.
And adds to death a fear. [ Hoffman ]

Here am I a man, here may I be one. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Here stands one who will avenge me. [ Frederick William of Prussia, pointing to his son ]

My wife lies here.
All my tears cannot bring her back;
Therefore, I weep. [ Miscellaneous epitaph ]

Here lies one Wood enclosed in wood,
One Wood within another.
The outer wood is very good.
We cannot praise the other. [ Epitaph ]

All hope abandon, ye who enter here. [ Dante ]

Here's a sigh for those who love me,
And a smile for those who hate,
And whatever sky's above me,
Here's a heart for every fate. [ Byron ]

Here lies the body of Johnny Haskell,
A lying, thieving, cheating rascal;
He always lied, and now he lies,
He has no soul and cannot rise. [ Epitaph ]

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon Him here,
Blest fishers were; and fish the last
Food was, that He on earth did taste:
I therefore strive to follow those,
Whom He to follow Him hath chose. [ Izaak Walton ]

Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind. [ Goldsmith ]

Here lies the body of Jonathan Ground,
Who was lost at sea and never found. [ Epitaph ]

Here quench your thirst, and mark in me
An emblem of true charity;
Who, while my bounty I bestow.
Am neither seen, nor heard to flow. [ Hone ]

Here the fell attorney prowls for prey. [ Dr. Johnson ]

Here rills of oily eloquence in soft
Meanders lubricate the course they take. [ Cowper ]

Here the marble statues breathe in rows. [ Addison ]

Man's work is to labor, and leaven -
As best he may - earth here with heaven. [ Robert Browning ]

I am native here and to the manner born. [ William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Sc. 4 ]

Here eglantine embalm'd the air,
Hawthorne and hazel mingled there;
The primrose pale, and violet flower.
Found in each cliff a narrow bower;
Fox-glove and nightshade, side by side.
Emblems of punishment and pride,
Group'd their dark hues with every stain
The weather-beaten crags retain. [ Sir Walter Scott ]

I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. [ William Shakespeare ]

To rock and river, plain and wood,
I cry, Ye are my kin. While I, O Earth!
Am but an atom of thee, and a breath,
Passing unseen and unrecorded, like
The tiny throb here in my temple's pulse. [ Philip J. Bailey ]

Here lies the body of Jonathan Near
Whose mouth it stretched from ear to ear.
Tread softly, stranger, o'er this wonder,
For if he yawns, you're gone, by thunder! [ Epitaph ]

Necessity, not pleasure, brings him here. [ Dante ]

Love betters what is best,
Even here below, but more in heaven above. [ Wordsworth ]

Keep together here, lest, running thither.
We unawares run into danger's mouth. [ Milton ]

Against diseases here the strongest fence.
Is the defensive virtue, abstinence. [ Herrick ]

My pen is at the bottom of a page,
Which being finished, here the story ends;
'Tis to be wish'd it had been sooner done,
But stories somehow lengthen when begun. [ Byron ]

You see me here, - a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both! [ William Shakespeare ]

Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail. [ William Shakespeare ]

Mystery hovers over all things here below. [ Lamartine ]

Better to say Here it is than Here it was. [ Proverb ]

That but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. [ William Shakespeare, Macbeth ]

Here lies my wife, poor Molly, let her lie,
She finds repose at last, and so do I. [ Epitaph ]

The books are balanced in heaven, not here. [ H. W. Shaw ]

Here I lie, and no wonder I am dead,
For the wheel of a wagon went over my head. [ Miscellaneous epitaph ]

Have I not here the best cards for the game,
To win this easy match? [ William Shakespeare ]

Here lies the body of Sarah Sexton,
Who as a wife did never vex one.
We can't say that for her at the next stone. [ Epitaph ]

Drip, drip, the rain comes falling,
Rain in the woods, rain on the sea;
Even the little waves, beaten, come crawling
As if to find shelter here with me. [ James Herbert Morse ]

When the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, and lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen,
In murthers and in outrage boldly here. [ William Shakespeare ]

We cannot enjoy a friend here.
If we are to meet it is beyond the grave.
How much of our soul a friend takes with him!
We half die in him. [ William Ellery Channing ]

A song to the oak, the brave old oak,
Who hath ruled in the greenwood long;
Here's health and renown to his broad,
green crown, And his fifty arms so strong.
There's fear in his frown when the goes down,
And the fire in the West fades out;
And he showeth his might on a wild midnight,
When the storms through his branches shout. [ H. F. Chorley ]

Here's to the pilot that weathered the storm. [ Canning ]

Here I left a needle, and here I will find it. [ Proverb ]

Listen! O, listen!
Here ever hum the golden bees
Underneath full-blossomed trees.
At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned. [ Lowell ]

And here where your praise might yield returns,
And a handsome word or two give help. [ Robert Browning ]

Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest.
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high.
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold,
That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold. [ William Shakespeare ]

Stillness accompanied with sound so soft,
Charms more than silence. Meditation here
May think down hours to moments. Here the heart
May give an useful lesson to the head,
And learning wiser grow without his books. [ Cowper ]

Next, over his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole.
How here he sipped, how there he plundered snug,
And sucked all over, like an industrious bug. [ Pope ]

Long while I sought to what I might compare
Those powerful eyes, which light my dark spirit;
Yet found I nought on earth, to which I dare
Resemble the image of their goodly light.
Not to the sun, for they do shine by night;
Nor to the moon, for they are changed never;
Nor to the stars, for they have purer sight;
Nor to the fire, for they consume not ever;
Nor to the lightning, for they still persevere;
Nor to the diamond, for they are more tender;
Nor unto crystal, for nought may they sever;
Nor unto glass, such baseness might offend her;
Then to the Maker's self the likest be;
Whose light doth lighten all that here we see. [ Spenser ]

Our present tears here, not our present laughter
Are but the handsells of our joys here after. [ Robert Herrick ]

Here sit I upon the sward wreathed with violets. [ K. Schmidt ]

And the dream that our mind had sketched in haste
Shall others continue, but never complete.
For none upon earth can achieve his scheme;
The best as the worst are futile here:
We wake at the self-same point of the dream -
All is here begun, and finished elsewhere. [ Victor Hugo ]

Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire.
Exert that noblest privilege, alone
Here to mankind indulged; control desire:
Let godlike Reason, from her sovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word I will! and it is done. [ Thomson ]

Here lies Dame Dorothy Peg,
Who never had issue except in her leg,
So great was her art, so deep was her cunning,
That while one leg stood, the other kept running. [ Epitaph ]

Here shall the Press the People's right maintain,
Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain;
Here Patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw,
Pledged to Religion, Liberty, and Law. [ Joseph Story ]

What should be spoken here, where our fate,
Hid within an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us? [ William Shakespeare ]

Oh, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break at once!
To prison, eyes, never look on liberty!
Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here;
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier! [ William Shakespeare ]

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here. [ Burns ]

Kinds hearts are here; yet would the tenderest one
Have limits to its mercy; God has none. [ A. A. Procter ]

We all live here in a state of ostentatious poverty. [ Juv ]

Night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast.
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards. [ William Shakespeare ]

Whenever he speaks, Heaven, how the listening throng
Dwell on the melting music of his tongue!
His arguments are emblems of his mien,
Mild but not faint, and forcing, though serene:
And when the power of eloquence he'd try,
Here lightning strikes you, there soft breezes sigh. [ Garth ]

Not for fellowship in hatred, but in love am I here. [ Sophocles ]

Here stand I. I cannot act otherwise. So help me God! [ Luther at the Diet of Worms ]

Swimming one here and another there in the vast abyss. [ Virgil ]

Here if you beat a bush, its odds but you start a thief. [ Proverb ]

Under this sod, beneath these trees,
Lyeth the pod of Solomon Pease.
Pease is not here, but only his pod,
He shelled out his soul, which went straight to his God. [ An old American epitaph ]

I am a barbarian here, for no one understands what I say. [ Ovid ]

She hath tied sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture here. [ William Shakespeare ]

Intellect really exists in its products; its kingdom is here. [ Coleridge ]

Alas! what does man here below? A little noise in much shadow. [ Victor Hugo ]

We cannot be kind to each other here for an hour;
We whisper, and hint, and chuckle, and grin at a brother's shame;
However we brave it out, we men are a little breed. [ Alfred Tennyson ]

Here are a few of the unpleasantest words that ever blotted paper! [ William Shakespeare ]

All sorts are here that all the earth yields, variety without end. [ Milton ]

A man may be happy here and hereafter, without much fame or wealth. [ Proverb ]

Action is happiness here; and without action there can be no heaven. [ Voss ]

Here I and sorrows sit: Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it. [ William Shakespeare ]

A wise writer does not reveal himself here and there, but everywhere. [ Lowell ]

Only Zweifel (doubt) rhymes to Teufel (devil); here am I quite at home. [ The Sceptic in Faust. ]

Here is the egotist's code: everything for himself, nothing for others. [ Sanial-Dubay ]

Here, where the city now stands, was at that time nothing but its site. [ Ovid ]

What we know here is very little, but what we are ignorant of is immense. [ La Place ]

Wise men in the world are like timber-trees in a hedge, here and there one. [ Proverb ]

I have that honorable grief lodged here which burns worse than tears drown. [ William Shakespeare ]

There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below. [ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Gleanings among the Sheaves ]

No, no! I am but shadow of myself: You are deceived, my substance is not here. [ William Shakespeare ]

Nature was here so lavish of her store, That she bestowed until she had no more. [ Brown ]

Here (in Italy) is ceaseless spring, and summer in months in which summer is alien. [ Virgil ]

Here's talk of the Turk and Pope, but it is my next neighbour that does me the harm. [ Proverb ]

On such a theme it were impious to be calm; passion is reason, transport, temper, here! [ Young ]

Here's such a plague every morning, with buckling shoes, gartering, combing and powdering. [ Farquhar ]

The sands are number'd, that make up my life; Here must I stay, and here my life must end. [ William Shakespeare ]

Earth is here (in Australia) so kind, just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. [ Douglas Jerrold ]

There is no use or money equal to that of beneficence; here the enjoyment grows upon reflection. [ Mackenzie ]

Darkness, that here surrounds our purblind understanding, will vanish at the dawning of eternal day. [ Boyle ]

Here is a talk of the Turk and the Pope, but my next neighbor doth me more harm than either of them both. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

I will pick up a few straws here and there over the broad field, and ask you a few moments to look at them. [ Garfield ]

Blessed is he that continueth where he is; here let us rest and lay out seed-fields; here let us learn to dwell. [ Carlyle ]

Seek knowledge, as if thou wert to be here for ever; virtue, as if death already held thee by the bristling hair. [ Herder ]

If hearty sorrow be a sufficient ransom for offence, I tender it here; I do as truly suffer, as ever I did commit. [ William Shakespeare ]

I change my place, but not my company. While here I have sometimes walked with God, and now I go to rest with Him. [ Dr. Preston ]

Paradise must be a tiresome place if it is peopled only by those saintly souls whose company we so dread here below. [ De Finod ]

Here is no home for a man: every one drives past another hastily and unneighbourly, and inquires not after his pain. [ Friedrich Schiller ]

Religion is an everlasting lodestar, that beams the brighter in the heavens the darker here on earth grows the night. [ Carlyle ]

No man is either worthy of a good home here or a heaven hereafter that is not willing to be in peril for a good cause. [ Capt. John Brown ]

Never be discouraged because good things go on so slowly here; and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand. [ Charles Dickens ]

Man has here two and a half minutes, - one to smile, one to sigh, and half of one to love; for in the midst of this minute he dies. [ Richter ]

Of the things which man can make or do here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy, are the things that we call books. [ Carlyle ]

When my time on Earth is gone, and my activities here are past, I want that they should bury me upside down, so my critics can kiss my ass. [ Bobby Knight ]

Death is as near to the young as to the old; here is all the difference: death stands behind the young man's back, before the old man's face. [ Rev. T. Adams ]

Our wrangling lawyers are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients' causes hereafter, some of them in hell. [ Burton ]

Innocence and diligence are inseparable companions, and only those who are active in the discharge of their duties here below are blessed from on high. [ Magoon ]

Life, whether in this world or any other, is the sum of our attainment, our experience, our character. In what other world shall we be more surely than we are here? [ Chapin ]

If human love hath power to penetrate the veil - and hath it not? - then there are yet living here a few who have the blessedness of knowing that an angel loves them. [ Hawthorne ]

Here, in the country, my books are my sole occupation: books my sure solace, and refuge from frivolous cares. Books the calmers, as well as the instruction of the mind. [ Mrs. Inchbald ]

It is only through the morning gate of the beautiful that you can penetrate into the realm of knowledge. That which we feel here as beauty we shall one day know as truth. [ Schiller ]

I long to believe in immortality. If I am destined to be happy with you here - how short is the longest life. I wish to believe in immortality - I wish to live with you forever. [ Keats ]

Here's a good joke to do during an earthquake: straddle a big crack in the ground, and if it opened wider, go Whoa! Whoa! and flail your arms around, like you're going to fall in. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

Books are the true metempsychosis, - they are the symbol and presage of immortality. The dead men are scattered, and none shall find them. Behold they are here! they do but sleep. [ Beecher ]

Religion is again here, for whoever will piously struggle upward, and sacredly, sorrowfully refuse to speak lies, which indeed will mostly mean refuse to speak at all on that topic. [ Carlyle ]

Here below is not the land of happiness: I know it now; it is only the land of toil, and every joy which comes to us is only to strengthen us for some greater labor that is to succeed. [ Fichte ]

If we were to live here always, with no other care than how to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, life would be a very sorry business. It is immeasurably heightened by the solemnity of death. [ Alexander Smith ]

Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever does or can die; but all is still here, and, recognized or not, lives and works through endless changes. [ Carlyle ]

No possession can surpass, or even equal, a good library to the lover of books. Here are treasured up for his daily use and delectation, riches which increase by being consumed, and pleasures which never cloy. [ John Alfred Langford ]

In the moral world nothing is lost, as in the material world nothing is annihilated. All our thoughts and all our sentiments here below, are but the beginning of sentiments and thoughts that will be finished elsewhere. [ Joubert ]

If there remains an eternity to us after the short revolution of time we so swiftly run over here, it is clear that all the happiness that can be imagined in this fleeting state is not valuable in respect of the future. [ Locke ]

If our Creator has so bountifully provided for our existence here, which is but momentary, and for our temporal wants, which will soon be forgotten, how much more must He have done for our enjoyment in the everlasting world! [ Hosea Ballou ]

If the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success; that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all here - but here, upon this bank and shoal of time, we'd jump the life to come. [ William Shakespeare ]

Darwin remarks that we are less dazzled by the light at waking, if we have been dreaming of visible objects. Happy are those who have here dreamt of a higher vision! They will the sooner be able to endure the glories of the world to come. [ Novalis ]

Persons are love's world, and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt of the young soul, wandering here in nature to the power of love, without being tempted to unsay, as treasonable to nature, aught derogatory to the social instincts. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

What laborious days, what watchings by the midnight lamp, what rackings of the brain, what hopes and fears, what long lives of laborious study, are here sublimized into print, and condensed into the narrow compass of these surrounding shelves! [ Horace Smith ]

Noted or Notorious? As adjectives, these terms are sometimes misused; as, He is a noted criminal. The better word here would be notorious, the meaning of which is restricted to that which is bad; while noted may be used in either a good or a bad sense. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]

The grave is a sacred workshop of nature! a chamber for the figure of the body; death and life dwell here together as man and wife. They are one body, they are in union; God has joined them together, and what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. [ Hippel ]

Some very dull and sad people have genius though the world may not count it as such; a genius for love, or for patience, or for prayer, maybe. We know the divine spark is here and there in the world: who shall say under what manifestations, or humble disguise! [ Anne Isabella Thackeray ]

It doth not yet appear what we shall be. We lie here in our nest, unfledged and weak, guessing dimly at our future, and scarce believing what even now appears. But the power is in us, and that power is finally to be revealed. And what a revelation will that be! [ Horace Bushnell ]

I pity men who occupy themselves exclusively with the transitory in things and lose themselves in the study of what is perishable, since we are here for this very end that we may make the perishable imperishable, which we can do only after we have learned how to appreciate both. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Moral beauty is the basis of all true beauty. This foundation is somewhat covered and veiled in nature. Art brings it out, and gives it more transparent forms. It is here that art, when it knows well its power and resources, engages in a struggle with nature in which it may have the advantage. [ Victor Cousin ]

The stifled hum of midnight, when traffic has lain down to rest, and the chariot wheels of Vanity, still rolling here and there through distant streets are bearing her to halls roofed in and lighted to the due pitch for her; and only vice and misery, to prowl or to moan like night birds, are abroad. [ Carlyle ]

Looking round on the noisy inanity of the world, words with little meaning, actions with little worth, one loves to reflect on the great empire of silence. The noble silent men, scattered here and there each in his department, silently thinking, silently working; whom no morning newspaper makes mention of. [ Carlyle ]

Infinity is the retirement in which perfect love and wisdom only dwell with God. In infinity and eternity the skeptic sees an abyss in which all is lost. I see in them the residence of Almighty power, in which my reason and my wishes find equally a firm support. Here, holding by the pillars of heaven, I exist - I stand fast. [ Miller ]

Perpetually or Continually? Perpetual means never ceasing, continuing without interruption; continual, of frequent recurrence, etc., with occasional interruptions. Indolent pupils are perpetually failing in the tasks assigned them. Here the proper word is continually. Time is perpetual; frequent disregard of our duties is continual. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]

Most people give up before they start because they think it is too hard, there is too much against me here, I can’t do this on my own, I don’t have the resources. I was on the back to work scheme when I applied. I didn’t have resources... It never occurred to me to fail. I always knew it was part of my destiny to do that thing. [ Mary Reynolds, 2002 Gold Medal Winner of the Chelsea Flower Show ]

Hair is the most delicate and lasting of our materials, and survives us, like love. It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend, we may almost look up to heaven and compare notes with the angelic nature, - may almost say, I have a piece of thee here not unworthy of thy being now. [ Leigh Hunt ]

Occur or Transpire? The misuse of these words is very common. Occur means simply to take place, to happen; transpire to leak out, to come to light. Hence, it is incorrect to say, The annual school exhibition transpired last week. The proper word here is occurred. But transpire is correctly used in such a sentence as, The proceedings of the caucus have not yet transpired. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]

To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little, and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation; above all, on the same condition, to keep friends with himself: here is a task for all a man has of fortitude and delicacy. [ Robert Louis Stevenson ]

The little flower which sprung up through the hard pavement of poor Picciola's prison was beautiful from contrast with the dreary sterility which surrounded it. So here amid rough walls, are there fresh tokens of nature. And O, the beautiful lessons which flowers teach to children, especially in the city! The child's mind can grasp with ease the delicate suggestions of flowers. [ Chapin ]

Necessary or Essential? Necessary signifies not to be departed from, and is a general and an indefinite term. The essential contains that essence or property which cannot be omitted. It is necessary for men to die. Exercise is essential to the preservation of health. There is an essential difference between gold and silver. Here we could not properly use necessary for essential. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]

The little flower which sprung up through the hard payment of poor Picciola's prison, was beautiful from contrast with the dreary sterility which surrounded it. So here, amid the rough walls, are there fresh tokens of nature; and oh, the beautiful lessons which flowers teach to children, especially in the city! The child's mind can grasp with ease the delicate suggestions of flowers. [ E. H. Chapin ]

Wherever there is a sky above him and a world around him, the poet is in his place; for here too is man's existence, with its infinite longings and small acquirings; its ever-thwarted, ever-renewed endeavours; its unspeakable aspirations, its fears and hopes that wander through eternity; and all the mystery of brightness and of gloom that it was ever made of, in any age or climate, since man first began to live. [ Carlyle ]

Eyes are bold as lions, roving, running, leaping, here and there, far and near. They speak all languages; they wait for no introduction; they are no Englishmen; ask no leave of age or rank; they respect neither poverty nor riches, neither learning nor power, nor virtue, nor sex, but intrude, and come again, and go through and through you in a moment of time. What inundation of life and thought is discharged from one soul into another through them! [ Emerson ]

Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom. The men themselves were hid and inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced by etiquette; but the thought which they did not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the strangers of another age. [ Emerson ]

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all the souls of all the writers that have bequeathed their labors to these Bodleians were reposing here as in some dormitory, or middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom of those sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard. [ Charles Lamb ]

Two things a master commits to his servant's care - the child and the child's clothes. It will be a poor excuse for the servant to say, at his master's return, Sir, here are all the child's clothes, neat and clean, but the child is lost. Much so of the account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies at the great day. Lord, here is my body; I am very grateful for it; I neglected nothing that belonged to its contents and welfare; but as for my soul, that is lost and cast away forever. I took little care and thought about it. [ John Flavel ]

I smoke in bed until I have to go to sleep; I wake up in the night, sometimes once, sometimes twice; sometimes three times, and I never waste any of these opportunities to smoke. This habit is so old and dear and precious to me that I would feel as you, sir, would feel if you should lose the only moral you've got - meaning the chairman - if you've got one: I am making no charges: I will grant, here, that I have stopped smoking now and then, for a few months at a time, but it was not on principle, it was only to show off; it was to pulverize those critics who said I was a slave to my habits and couldn't break my bonds. [ Mark Twain, Seventieth Birthday speech ]

He must have an artist's eye for color and form who can arrange a hundred flowers as tastefully, in any other way, as by strolling through a garden, and picking here one and there one, and adding them to the bouquet in the accidental order in which they chance to come. Thus we see every summer day the fair lady coming in from the breezy side hill with gorgeous colors and most witching effects. If only she could be changed to alabaster, was ever a finer show of flowers in so fine a vase? But instead of allowing the flowers to remain as they were gathered, they are laid upon the table, divided, rearranged on some principle of taste, I know not what, but never again have that charming naturalness and grace which they first had. [ Beecher ]